a5c7b9f00b A romance between a railroad engineer and the switchman&#39;s daughter is nearly ruined by train wreckers who knock out the girl and leave her on the tracks to be run over. The engineer perches on the engine&#39;s cow catcher and rescues the girl. Train Wreckers, The (1905) <br/><br/>*** (out of 4) <br/><br/>A group of men get their kicks by derailing trains but they meet their match in a feisty woman who will stop at nothing to protect the trains. This is a pretty intense action/thriller that has some wonderful stunt work including one scene where the woman is knocked out on the tracks and a man has to climb to the front of the train and pick her up moments before being ran over.<br/><br/>Miller&#39;s Daughter, The (1905) <br/><br/>*** (out of 4) <br/><br/>Hazel is kicked out of her father&#39;s house when he learns she&#39;s involved with a married man and refuses to marry a good farmer who her father likes. Eventually Hazel finds herself on the streets, too poor to live anywhere and her father still hates her for her selection in men. This here was a pretty brutal and harsh film that deals with poverty, suicide and pretty much everything else in between. It&#39;s rather touching in the endthe girl gets one more chance at doing the right thing.<br/><br/>Watermelon Patch, The (1905) <br/><br/>** 1/2 (out of 4) <br/><br/>Several black men are stealing watermelon so the farmers put out scarecrow&#39;s with real men to scare them away. Here&#39;s another politically insensitive short that uses race to get laughs and while some of the stereotypes are so horribly over the top you can&#39;t help but roll your eyes and laugh.<br/><br/>Life of an American Policeman (1905) <br/><br/>** 1/2 (out of 4) <br/><br/>Shows the everyday life of a policeman from waking up in the morning, having breakfast with his children and his duties on the job. Some nice stunt work but not nearly in the same leagueLife of an American Firefighter. . . .the heroine of the Edison Motion Picture Company&#39;s 11 minute, 32 second short, TRAIN WRECKERS (1905) strips off a petticoat of some sort to wave down a train engineered by her lover before it can be bushwhacked by a gang of ruffians up to no good. Though this film could have been entitled &quot;THE SWITCHMAN&#39;S DAUGHTER,&quot; the Edison people apparently learned their lesson when they analyzed the disappointing box office for THE MILLER&#39;S DAUGHTER, and decided to come up with something snappier than the more obvious default label for this follow-up offering. Also of interest are the Lassie-like exploits of the heroine&#39;s mastiff dog, which not only frees her from the bandits&#39; bonds, but also rushes to Dad (the Switchman) to bark out that Timmy has fallen down the well. Though it is unclear to me whether the heroine&#39;s lover survives the final shootout, the gun-smoking climax is more satisfying than the finish of Edison&#39;s earlier foray into railroad mayhem, THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (in which the outlaw gang behavesif they do not have even one brain between them). The silly ranger polka which diluted the more famous film has been replaced with non-stop action in this superior effort, TRAIN WRECKERS.
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